Peace Operations

Abstract

UN peace operations face an uncertain future. Peacekeeping deployments have been through cycles of expansion and contraction since the 1950s. Over the last two decades, the UN has been heavily engaged in a series of sizeable operations, primarily in Africa. Peacekeepers have struggled to engender sustainable peace in cases such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. This reflects organizational weaknesses in the UN peacekeeping system, questions over the limits of military action by peacekeeping forces in volatile environments, and tensions with the fragile governments that the UN is mandated to support. There is a new emphasis on lighter political missions as an alternative to large blue helmet forces. But history shows that the evolution of peace operations is rarely linear or predictable.